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Synopsis

The Centre informed a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad of the Delhi High Court on Friday that its initiatives have reduced the number of deaths during sewer and septic tank cleaning, and it is concerned about ensuring the ban on manual scavenging is enforced.

A short affidavit was filed by the Central Government through its Department of Social Justice and Empowerment in response to a PIL filed in 2019 by Advocate Amit Sahni, seeking strict compliance with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 to prevent deaths caused by manual cleaning of septic tanks and sewers.

The affidavit stated that the Centre is seriously concerned with the tragic incidents of death while cleaning sewers and septic tanks, therefore, as and when such a case comes to its notice, the matter is immediately taken up with the state government concerned to ensure payment of compensation to the affected family members.

It added that with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, manual scavenging had been banned.

While stating that sanitization is a “State” subject and the state government is responsible for strict compliance with the 2013 Act. The affidavit stated that the deaths reported by the states/union territories are due to hazardous cleaning of sewers/septic tanks, which has been prohibited by the Act, except for in some extraordinary cases only with the approval of the competent authority.

Taking note of the Center's affidavit, the Court informed the petitioner that there is also immediate compensation and employment for the unfortunate victim's kin and allowed him to file suggestions to the Centre's affidavit.

Court said that the government spent a lot of money on election advertisements and that it should spend some money sensitizing people about manual scavenging because so many people died from it every year.

Accordingly, the bench listed the matter for further hearing on September 3, 2022.

Case Title: Amit Sahni v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Ors.